The present invention relates to the sport of golf, and, more particularly, to an an apparatus for storing golf balls and positioning them on a tee.
Many golfers desire to improve their skills by driving numerous balls in succession from a single tee and commercial driving ranges as well as private practice areas have been constructed to accommodate them. These facilities are often in great demand, creating a need to decrease the time taken to hit a quantity of balls.
It has been found that a person driving golf balls spends a large portion of his time picking up and teeing the balls. Moreover, the necessity to repeatedly bend over and tee the next ball is fatiguing, rendering the activity less pleasant and more tiring for the participant. One solution to these problems is the use of a device that stores a quantity of balls and dispenses a single ball onto a tee when actuated by the user. Exemplary devices of this type are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,127,177 to Benkoe and 3,599,983 to Melton.
The various teeing devices that have been proposed exhibit a number of disadvantages. Many are unduly complex, unreliable and expensive. Some do not consistently position the ball stably on the tee, thereby defeating their principal purpose. Other devices may intrude too much upon the golfer's field of vision and are, therefore, distracting. Another principal disadvantage of many teeing devices is that they are inherently suitable only for a right-handed golfer or for a left-handed golfer but are not readily adaptable for the use of either.
An objective of the present invention is to provide an improved teeing apparatus that overcomes the above disadvantages.